Did you Get Lost in the Garden?

Very soon (July) a wedding will take place in the backyard at my in-laws home. A while back I was asked to help spruce up the area around where the ceremony will be to help improve its aesthetics for the wedding. The property itself is roughly 6 acres of mostly wooded land with a cleared area near the house for…

I posted this picture the other day on The Home Garden Facebook page but thought I’d share it here too. Dandelions may be the bane of the lawn care perfectionist but if you look close I think you can appreciate the beauty in even the weeds.

Wouldn’t you know it. I had big plans for those delicious garden grown sweet potatoes. Last year they were the best things ever. Candy from the ground and I had little reason to think I wouldn’t have more of the same delicious tubers again this year. I even saved a sweet potato from last year and sprouted this year’s starts…

Emily Rose who gardens and blogs in the Chattanooga area has a very picturesque setting for her fall colors!  What could be better than fall colors reflected in a pond?  Oaks, maples, and other trees all offer up a piece of East Tennessee fall color.  Stop by and check out Emily’s fall color pictures at her blog!

‘Autumn Joy’ Sedum seed heads persist through winter. This time of year the flowers are mostly faded and few things have retained enough foliage to be markedly interesting.  But those faded flowers have left something behind – seeds!  Seeds can do a few of very cool things: They sustain the plant species for the coming year as new plants are…

A little more guessing fun on this first day of winter! Do you know this evergreen tree with the black berries? I’ll give you a hint – I’ve written about it before! No links – that would be too easy! No rhymes either – that would be too cheesy! Oops… Yesterday’s post “What Seeds are We?” were the  seeds of the…

A few months ago I was sent some Muck Boots from the Muck Boot company to try out. Disclaimer: They sent me the boots for free but everything I say in this post is my own opinion. Also I’ve used affiliate links in this post to Tractor Supply if you would like to find a pair of Muck Boots for…

I found these little insects today resting and munching on our Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly weed). They are known as milkweed bugs or Oncopeltus fasciatus. According to the University of Arizona Extension the milkweed bugs feed on: Seeds and tissue of the milkweed plant (Asclepias spp.). In captivity, the bugs feed on shelled sunflower seeds. I’m trying to figure out the…

To say I’m a fan of heucheras is an understatement. I like to think of myself as a collector of coral bells, as they are often called, even though my collection is still just a work in progress. I’m gradually adding different varieties to my garden but seem to be running out of room in the corner shade garden (corner…

As strange as it may sound there are things still growing in the vegetable garden in November and it’s not because of our unusually warm weather. Unfortunately there is only one vegetable growing but there are several kinds of herbs that are doing great. All the vegetable garden pictures were taken this morning while a light frost was still covering…

Here’s just a quick post to say Merry Christmas to everyone out there! I may not have a chance to post over the next week so I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday with lots of food, family, and fun! Hold true to the spirit of the holiday and it’s true meaning and you will have a very…

I didn’t want to just have one plant to show so I added the Nandina above. Its berries are showing some pretty good winter color.Here you can see the tiny blooms of our Mediterranean White Heather. Erica x darlelensis would look great as mass border planting. Too bad I only have the one, I’ll have to add more this year!

On our land I’ve purposely allowed the milkweed to grow. I want our land to be a haven and waystation for the monarch butterflies as they migrate south. I’ve been watching all summer to see when they would be passing through and took a short video of a monarch caterpillar that I found devouring a milkweed plant. Milkweed is the…

It is full fledged spring around our Middle Tennessee garden.  There is no shortage of work that needs to be done in the form of weeding and mulching on top of a myriad of miscellaneous projects.  For now though let’s just take a few pictures of the garden and we’ll think of that monster spring to-do list a little later….

It’s been while since I showed larger scale pictures of the garden.  Mostly because it was such a mess over the summer. Today I’ll share a few photos of the various garden areas.  The resiliency of plants is simply amazing. With neglect, wet weather, dry weather, hot weather, and lack of time my plants seem to be doing fine! The…

Very early in their blogging experience Garden bloggers find that the digital camera is their best friend. When I started blogging back in October of last year I discovered that illustrating my posts was essential to having a successful blog. People thrive on pictures. I’ve noticed that when a post has pictures more people are likely to read through the…

I had one of those extremely busy weekends.  The kind where you have so much to do you don’t know exactly where to start.  When you finally do start you discover that to do one task you have to do another task first. Then when you finally get going you move from one job, to another, to another, and there…

This time of year people are looking for answers to their gardening questions.  Perhaps the most common gardening questions start with the word when.  As gardeners we realize that time is a very important factor when planting plants because it can greatly effect how a plant grows in the garden. Here are a few gardening whens that people have been…